The Bay State Monthly — Volume 1, No. 5, May, 1884 eBook

THE OUTLOOK.

Reference to map, “Boston and vicinity,”
already used in the January number of this Magazine
to illustrate the siege of Boston, will give a clear
impression of the local surroundings, at the time of
the American occupation of Charlestown Heights.
The value of that position was to be tested.
The Americans had previously burned the lighthouses
of the harbor. The islands of the bay were already
miniature fields of conflict; and every effort of
the garrison to use boats, and thereby secure the
needed supplies of beef, flour, or fuel, only developed
a counter system of boat operations, which neutralized
the former and gradually limited the garrison to the
range of its guns. This close grasp of the land
approaches to Boston, so persistently maintained,
stimulated the Americans to catch a tighter hold, and
force the garrison to escape by sea. The capture
of that garrison would have placed unwieldy prisoners
in their hands and have made outside operations impossible,
as well as any practical disposition of the prisoners
themselves, in treatment with Great Britain. Expulsion
was the purpose of the rallying people.

General Gage fortified Boston Neck as early as 1774,
and the First Continental Congress had promptly assured
Massachusetts of its sympathy with her solemn protest
against that act. It was also the intention of
General Gage to fortify Dorchester Heights. Early
in April, a British council of war, in which Clinton,
Burgoyne, and Percy took part, unanimously advised
the immediate occupation of Dorchester, as both indispensable
to the protection of the shipping, and as assurance
of access to the country for indispensable supplies.

General Howe already appreciated the mistake of General
Gage, in his expedition to Concord, but still cherished
such hope of an accommodation of the issue with the
Colonies that he postponed action until a peaceable
occupation of Dorchester Heights became impossible,
and the growing earthworks of the besiegers already
commanded Boston Neck.

General Gage had also advised, and wisely, the occupation
of Charlestown Heights, as both necessary and feasible,
without risk to Boston itself. He went so far
as to announce that, in case of overt acts of hostility
to such occupation, by the citizens of Charlestown,
he would burn the town.

It was clearly sound military policy for the British
to occupy both Dorchester and Charlestown Heights,
at the first attempt of the Americans to invest the
city.

As early as the middle of May, the Massachusetts Committee
of Safety, as well as the council, had resolved “to
occupy Bunker Hill as soon as artillery and powder
could be adequately furnished for the purpose,”
and a committee was appointed to examine and report
respecting the merits of Dorchester Heights, as a
strategic restraint upon the garrison of Boston.

On the fifteenth of June, upon reliable information
that the British had definitely resolved to seize
both Heights, and had designated the eighteenth of
June for the occupation of Charlestown, the same Committee
of Safety voted “to take immediate possession
of Bunker Bill.”